Kenya To Host First CARICOM-Africa Summit. Here Is The Agenda

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 6- Nairobi will on Tuesday host the first Caricom summit to be held in Africa under the theme; Unity Across Continents and Oceans: Opportunities for Deepening Integration.

The virtual event aimed at promoting closer collaboration between Africa Diaspora, People of African descent, and the Caribbean and Pacific region and its institutions.

Participants will include; heads of States and Government of the African Union and the Caribbean Community Member States, as well as Chair of the African Union Commission, Chairs of Africa Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the CARICOM Troika, the CARICOM Secretariat, the Secretary-General of the Organization of the African Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), and the President of Caribbean Development Bank. President Uhuru Kenyatta will chair the summit.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that Key outcomes of the Summit will include an integrated greater economic trade and investment commitment between Africa and the Caribbean and solidarity actions to address global challenges including COVID 19 pandemic and climate change.

“The Summit is therefore aimed at actualizing the mutual aspirations of both the Union and Community by promoting ties and engagement between its peoples, addressing the economic and communication challenges, fostering continent to continent integration, accessing the progress in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic and launching of collaboration between African and Caribbean regional continental organizations,” the statement noted.

The ministry said the summit is expected to catalyze key strategic decisions that will insulate developing countries from the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as target availability and distribution of vaccines and sharing of best practices in Africa and the Caribbean.

The 7th annual summit arises from the 33rd Session (2020) of the African Union which affirmed the strong cultural and historical linkages between the people of Africa and Africa Diaspora and all people of African descent.

The 2020 CARICOM Summit of Heads of State and Government also recognized the increasing contact between its Member States and African Countries.

The summit will also focus on debt sustainability and development financing; trade investment and economic integration; blue economy and transport connectivity; fintech-related solutions; political integration between Africa and Caribbean countries; people to people contacts and cultural exchanges.

“It is expected that the Summit will also build momentum and support for the formation of the Africa-Brazil- Caribbean Development Commission and provide political goodwill and affirmation for activities aimed at forging closer ties with the African Diaspora and People of African Descent,” the statement added.

Other expected outcome includes voluntary commitments by individual countries and other stakeholders to establish the AU-CARICOM Secretariat and institutionalize African Union – CARICOM collaboration.

The meeting is being held nearly Five hundred years after the commencement of the displacement of enslaved Africans to the Caribbean and Seventy-six years after the seminal 5th Pan-African Congress that was held in Manchester, England in 1945, and that brought together the political activists of Africa and the Caribbean to conceive plans to bring about the decolonization of these two regions.